How to display properties of base class and subclasses in listbox

Question

public class Animal
{

 public string Name {get;set;}


}

public string Cat : Animal
{

 public int AmountOfTeeth {get;set;}

}


//In Form.cs:

public void showAnimal(){


 var animalList = _animalManager.GetAnimals();


foreach(var animal in animalList)
{

     animalListbox.Items.Add(animal)
}

How do I display both Name and AmountOfLegs in the listbox?

Like this: Steven 14

}

Answer 1

The ListBox component displays what the ToString() method returns. You can change the display by overriding the method

public class Cat : Animal // note you probably mistyped "class" here
{
    public int AmountOfTeeth { get; set; }
    public override string ToString()
    {
        return Name + " has " + AmountOfTeeth + " teeth"
    }
}

Answer 2

I love to keep the data entities 'clean' and not to add display only related properties/methods. What I am usually do is creating local entity just for the display. Lets say AnimalDisplay which gets the base entity in its ctor. With the new entity I can add any prop I want just for the display, or override the ToString() in that mater and use this in the list.

Just another angle on this one...